Hair raising

SUBSTANCES that make brain cells grow might lead to treatments for baldness, say dermatologists in Germany. They expect their bizarre discovery could also open up new avenues for keeping unwanted body hair at bay.

"This is the first evidence that growth factors previously thought to be important for the development of brain cells are also important for the growth of hair follicles," says Ralf Paus, who carried out the work while at Humbolt University in Berlin.

Paus and his colleagues had previously shown that a growth factor in the brain called neurotrophin-3 triggers the formation of hair follicles in embryonic mice. When mammals are born, however, the follicles shrink and regress, which is why a baby's hair often falls out a few weeks after birth.

In the next "resting" phase of the cycle, the shrunken follicle hangs onto the original hair shaft until a new hair pushes it out of ...

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